Warning: This post has MAJOR SPOILERS for the end of Season 5 of Game of Thrones (and maybe even the unreleased book The Winds of Winter).

Those of us who truly obsess over the show Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin's series The Song of Ice and Fire have been wondering since the recent finale of the latest season: Is Stannis Baratheon alive or dead?

Remember how coldly Brienne of Tarth regarded him when she found him bleeding out, having summarily lost the Battle of Winterfell?

Brienne's sword swung into a very cruel jump-cut, even for an episode so filled with cruelty. For the Internet at large, Stannis "the Mannis" Baratheon's fate was effectively up in the air, especially for a show known for giving you a lot of visual death.

But according to David Nutter, director of the episode, yes, he is in fact dead: "From the very beginning, and [through] the script process, that was the intent – he's dead," Nutter told EW.com on Friday at San Diego Comic-Con. He said that showing the death would be "gratuitous."

Just so we're keeping score, Nutter also directed the episode where all of this happened.